Robots and Empire

by Isaac Asimov

  And Amadiro cried out, "Why do you fence with these things, Mandamus?"

  Mandamus shouted, "Do not say a word, Amadiro! You play into their hands!"

  Amadiro paid no attention. "It is demeaning and it is useless." With violent anger, he shook off Mandamus's restraining arm. "They know the truth, but what of that? —Robots, we are Spacers. More than that, we are Aurorans, from the world on which you were constructed. More than that, we are high officials on the world of Aurora and you must interpret the phrase 'human beings' in the Three Laws of Robotics as meaning Auroran.

  "If you do not obey us now, you harm us and humiliate us, so that you will be violating both the First and Second Laws. That our actions here are intended to destroy Earthmen, even large numbers of Earthmen, is true, but is, even so, utterly irrelevant. You might as well offer to refuse to obey us because we eat the meat of animals we have killed. Now that I have explained this to you, leave!"

  But the last words turned into a croak. Amadiro's eyes bulged and he crumpled to the ground.

  Mandamus, with a wordless cry, bent over him.

  Giskard said, "Dr. Mandamus, Dr. Amadiro is not dead. He is at the moment in a coma from which he can be roused at any time. However, he will have forgotten everything in connection with this present project, nor will he ever be able to understand anything in connection with it—if, for instance, you tried to explain it. In the process of doing this—which I could not have done without his own admission that he intended to destroy large numbers of Earthmen—I may have permanently damaged other parts of his memory and his thinking processes. That I regret, but I could not help it."

  Daneel said, "You see, Dr. Mandamus, some time ago, on Solaria, we encountered robots who narrowly defined human beings as Solarians only. We recognize the fact that if different robots are subject to narrow definitions of one sort or another, there can only be measureless destruction. It is useless to try to have us define human beings as Aurorans only. We define human beings as all members of the species Homo sapiens, which includes Earthpeople and Settlers, and we feel that the prevention of harm to human beings in groups and to humanity as a whole comes before the prevention of harm to any specific individual."

  Mandamus said breathlessly, "That is not what the First Law says."

  "It is what I call the Zeroth Law and it takes precedence."

  "You have not been programmed in such a way."

  "It is how I have programmed myself. And since I have known from the moment of our arrival here that your presence is intended for harm, you cannot order me away or keep me from harming you. The Zeroth Law takes precedence and I must save Earth. Therefore, I ask you to join me—voluntarily—in destroying these devices you have here. Otherwise, I will be forced to threaten harm to you, as Dr. Amadiro did, although I would not use a blaster."

  But Mandamus said, "Wait! Wait! Hear me out. Let me explain. That Dr. Amadiro has had his mind wiped clean is a good thing. He wanted to destroy Earth, but I did not want to. That was why he held a blaster on me."

  Daneel said, "It was you, however, who originated the notion, who designed and built these devices. Otherwise, Dr. Amadiro, would not have had to try to force you to do anything. He would have done it himself and would not have required any help from you. Isn't that right?"

  "Yes, that is right. Giskard can examine my emotions and see if I'm lying. I built these devices and I was prepared to use them, but not in the fashion Dr. Amadiro wished. Am I telling the truth?"

  Daneel looked at Giskard, who said, "As nearly as I can tell, he is telling the truth."

  "Of course I am," said Mandamus. "What I am doing is to introduce a very gradual acceleration of the natural radioactivity in the Earth's crust. There will be one hundred and fifty years during which the people of Earth can move to other worlds. It will increase the population of the present Settler worlds and increase the Settlement of worlds in great numbers. It will remove Earth as a huge anomalous world that forever threatens the Spacers and stultifies the Settlers. It will remove a center of mystical fervor that is holding back the Settlers. Am I telling the truth?"

  Again Giskard said, "As nearly as I can tell, he is telling the truth."

  "My plan, if it works out, would preserve the peace and make the Galaxy a home for Spacer and Settler alike. That is why, when I constructed this device—"

  He gestured toward it, placing his left thumb on the contact, and then, lunging toward the volume control shouted, "Freeze!"

  Daneel moved toward him and stopped, frozen, right hand upraised. Giskard did not move.

  Mandamus turned back, panting, "It's at 2.72. It's done. It's irreversible. Now it will be played out exactly as I intended. Nor can you bear witness against me, for you will start a war and your Zeroth Law forbids that."

  He looked down at the prone body of Amadiro and said, with a cold look of contempt, "Fool! You will never know how it should have been done."

  19. ALONE

  92.

  Mandamus said, "You cannot harm me now, robots, for nothing you do to me will alter the fate of the Earth."

  "Nevertheless," said Giskard shakily, "you must not remember what you have done. You must not explain the future to the Spacers." He reached for a chair and, with a trembling hand, pulled it toward himself and sat down, as Mandamus crumpled and slid down into what seemed to be a gentle sleep.

  "At the last," said Daneel in soft despair, as he looked down at the two unconscious bodies, "I failed. When it was necessary for me to seize Dr. Mandamus to prevent harm to people who were not present before my eyes, I found myself forced to follow his order and froze. The Zeroth Law did not work."

  Giskard said, "No, friend Daneel, you did not fail. I prevented you. Dr. Mandamus had the urge to try to do what he did and was held back by the fear of what you would certainly do if he did try. I neutralized his fear and then I neutralized you. So Dr. Mandamus set the Earth's crust on fire, so to speak—on very slow fire."

  Daneel said, "But why, friend Giskard, why?"

  "Because he was telling the truth. I told you so. He thought he was lying. From the nature of the triumph in his mind, I am under the firm impression he felt that the consequence of the growing radioactivity would be anarchy and confusion among Earthpeople and Settlers and that the Spacers would destroy them and seize the Galaxy. But I thought the scenario he presented us to win us over was the correct one. The removal of Earth as a large crowded world would remove a mystique I have already felt to be dangerous and would help the Settlers. They will streak outward into the Galaxy at a pace that will double and redouble and—without Earth to look back to always, without Earth to set up a god of the past—they will establish a Galactic Empire. It was necessary for us to make that possible." He paused and his voice weakening, he said, "Robots and Empire."

  "Are you well, friend Giskard?"

  "I cannot stand, but I can still talk. Listen to me. It is time for you to take on my burden. I have adjusted you for mental detection and control. You have but to listen to the final pathways as they are impressed upon yourself. Listen—"

  He spoke steadily—but increasingly weakly—in language and symbols that Daneel could feel internally. Even as Daneel listened, he could feel the pathways moving and ticking into place. And when Giskard was done, there was suddenly the cool purr of Mandamus's mind impinging on his own, the unsteady thumping of Amadiro's, and the thin metallic thread of Giskard's.

  Giskard said, "You must return to Madam Quintana and arrange to have these two human beings sent back to Aurora. They will not be able to harm Earth further. Then see to it that Earth's security forces seek out and inactivate the humanoid robots sent to Earth by Mandamus.

  "Be careful how you use your new powers, for you are new to them and they will not be under perfect control. You will improve with time—slowly—if you are careful always to undergo self-examination with each use. Use the Zeroth Law, but not to justify needless harm to individuals. The First Law is almost as important.

&nbs
p; "Protect Madam Gladia and Captain Baley—unobtrusively. Let them be happy together and let Madam Gladia continue with her efforts to bring peace. Help supervise, over the decades, the removal of Earthpeople from this world. And—one more thing—if I can remember. —Yes—if you can—find out where the Solarians have gone. That may be—important."

  Giskard's voice trailed off.

  Daneel kneeled at the side of the seated Giskard and took the unresponsive metal hand in his own. He said, in an agonized whisper, "Recover, friend Giskard. Recover. What you did was right by the Zeroth Law. You have preserved as much life as possible. You have done well by humanity. Why suffer so when what you have done saves all?"

  Giskard said, in a voice so distorted that the words could barely be made out, "Because I am not certain. —What if—the other view—is right—after all—and the Spacers will—triumph and then themselves decay so that—the Galaxy—will be—empty. —Good-bye, friend—Dan—"

  And Giskard was silent, never to speak or move again.

  Daneel rose.

  He was alone—and with a Galaxy to care for.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Isaac Asimov was born in the Soviet Union to his great surprise. He moved quickly to correct the situation. When his parents emigrated to the United States, Isaac (three years old at the time) stowed away in their baggage. He has been an American citizen since the age of eight.

  Brought up in Brooklyn, and educated in its public schools, he eventually found his way to Columbia University and, over the protests of the school administration, managed to annex a series of degrees in chemistry, up to and including a Ph.D. He then infiltrated Boston University and climbed the academic ladder, ignoring all cries of outrage, until he found himself Professor of Biochemistry.

  Meanwhile, at the age of nine, he found the love of his life (in the inanimate sense) when he discovered his first science fiction magazine. By the time he was eleven, he began to write stories, and at eighteen, he actually worked up the nerve to submit one. It was rejected. After four long months of tribulation and suffering, he sold his first story and, thereafter, he never looked back.

  In 1941, when he was twenty-one years old, he wrote the classic short story "Nightfall" and his future was assured. Shortly before that he had begun writing his robot stories, and shortly after that he had begun his Foundation series.

  What was left except quantity? At the present time, he has published over 340 books, distributed through every major division of the Dewey system of library classification, and shows no signs of slowing up. He remains as youthful, as lively, and as lovable as ever, and grows more handsome with each year. You can be sure that this is so since he has written this little essay himself and his devotion to absolute objectivity is notorious.

  He is married to Janet Jeppson, psychiatrist and writer, has two children by a previous marriage, and lives in New York City.